1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling a reproduction speed of a disk device to extend an operable time of a portable device, which equips the disk device, such as a notebook using a battery as a power source.
2. Description of the Related Art
A portable computer such as a notebook is being widely popularized as its weight and size is getting lighter and smaller. The portable computer is not operable for a long time greater than about two or three hours without an external power since a battery has a restricted capacity to store electric energy.
However, the disk device to be installed in or connected to the portable computer is getting higher in a reproduction speed rapidly, which causes the portable computer to dissipate more and more electric power so that the operable time is decreased although a storage capacity of a battery is increased as a result of technical development.
Moreover, a high-speed disk device always rotates an inserted disk at a fixed high speed for every data access, which causes a time delay until the data on disk the starts to be read out after a high target speed is reached, and also reduces power-supplying time of a battery installed in the portable computer.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for adjusting a reproduction speed of an optical disk inserted in a disk device based on a remaining battery energy and whether or not an external power is supplied to a portable computer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for adjusting a reproduction speed of an optical recording medium, which overcome problems and limitations associated with the related art.
A method for adjusting a disk reproduction speed based on a remaining battery energy according to an embodiment of the present invention, at the part of a portable computer, detects an amount of the remaining battery energy, and sends a data indicating the detected amount of the remaining battery energy to a connected disk device, and, at the other part of the disk device, decreases a disk reproduction speed based on the contents of the data sent by the notebook computer.
An apparatus for adjusting a disk reproduction speed based on a remaining battery energy according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises an interfacing unit for sending or receiving data to/from a connected host; a controller reading information regarding an amount of electric energy charged in an outer battery from a data received through said interfacing unit and determining a disk reproduction speed to be lower than a maximum speed based on the read information; and a driver driving a disk to rotate at the determined reproduction speed.